This invention relates to a packaging machine of the type in which a web of flexible material is folded upwardly and is sealed at spaced increments so as to form a strip of interconnected upright pouches having open upper ends. The strip is advanced in such a manner as to move the pouches edgewise to a cutting station where a cutter periodically severs successive pouches from the leading end portion of the strip.
Each severed pouch is gripped by clamps or the like carried on an endless chain and is advanced by the chain along a predetermined path through the filling and closing section of the machine. During such advance, one or more fillers deposit product into the pouches and then the upper ends of the pouches are sealed to enclose the product in the pouches.
The invention has more particular reference to a continuous motion packaging machine. In such a machine, the web, the pouch strip and the severed pouches are advanced with continuous motion as the pouch forming, filling and closing operations are performed. A typical continuous motion machine is disclosed in Nutting et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,230,687 and such a machine is capable of operating at significantly higher speeds than an intermittent motion machine in which the various operations are carried out when the pouches dwell between successive steps.